Designing Welding Workstations to Reduce the Risk of MSDS (Musculoskeletal Disorders)
Jurnal Indonesia Sosial Teknologi, Vol. 5, No. 9, September 2024 3677
physical and is carried out in inappropriate ways, let alone repeatedly, can slowly cause
musculoskeletal disorders. This needs to be taken seriously, as it can lead to more severe
consequences. Since there is a strong association between other occupational risk factors
and work posture, there is a need to assess how they intend to increase productivity
(Thoriq & Sutejo, 2017). The prevalence of MSD disorders according to the World Health
Organization (WHO) reaches around 60% of all occupational diseases (Saraswati, 2020).
Meanwhile, data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) in 2017 shows that
Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) in the last 3 years are ranked second out of all cases
of occupational accidents and diseases reaching 469,000 cases (prevalence of 34.54%)
(Mulyadi & Iswanto, 2020). In Indonesia, data on MSDs statistically with details are not
yet available. However, based on Riskesdas data in 2018, there were 9.2% of injuries
resulted in disruption of daily activities in Indonesia, and 9.1% occurred in the workplace
environment. The tendency of joint diseases in the population or workforce over 15 years
old in Indonesia is around 7.3%. However, data (figure 1) from BPJS Kesehatan shows
that the cost of health services sourced from occupational diseases shows a fairly high
intensity every year. This shows that it is quite serious for the handling of prevention
(Shufiyah, 2018).
There have been previous studies that have reviewed the design of workstations for
welding areas. The process of designing this workstation involves the application of the
DFMA or Design for Manufacture and Assembly method and the assembly method
selection diagram. (Dahda & Rizqi, 2022). The result of the workstation design includes
a workbench equipped with a footrest to make it easier for the operator to rest, a place for
a protractor, a welding wire container, a workpiece base plane, and an area for placing
the material to be welded. There are also clamps in the form of a vise with a height of 73
cm, a length of 60 cm, and a width of 60 cm. (Anwardi et al., 2019), while Hilman (Fauzi
& Khusuma, 2020) Made a design for this ergonomic workstation including a table with
a height of 112 cm, a length of 200 cm, and a width of 75 cm, this was developed to
reduce muscle fatigue and discomfort in the workplace and the height of the table is 5-10
cm above the height of the worker's elbow when standing.
Many studies have studied the design of workstations in the welding area. Some
focus on risk analysis and posture evaluation. The object of the research is a welding area
workstation in a company in the city of Bekasi, West Java.
However, comprehensive research that integrates all aspects, including posture
analysis, anthropometry, productivity, cost, design visualization, layout, and welding
workstations is still limited. Most previous studies have only evaluated postures or
proposed designs without an approach that considers all relevant factors. In addition,
posture evaluation before and after design improvements using the Nigel Cross model has
not been explored in depth for welding workstations. Therefore, the researcher conducted
research that can be a novelty value, namely by designing a welding workstation that will
be implemented at PT. Sinar Bharata Perkasa. The results of the research are in the form
of design and visualization which will be designed based on posture analysis of existing
work activities. The existing design will be designed using the Nigel Cross model whose